New Gear - review round-up

[Greeny]

I've saved enough on commuting and lunches over the last year to buy a lot of new musical goodies (probably too much!). Here's a quick run down & review of them. Would be interesting to see if anyone agrees / disagrees, and sorry if it causes any GAS 



1. TC Electronic MojoMojo Drive pedal - Paul Gilbert is apparently a fan. I wanted a Nobels OD-1, but didn't want to go over £100 for a drive pedal. I'm very happy with it. It's a nice transparent drive that I leave on all the time (low gain - just a little bit of oomph on a clean signal). Score: 9/10.

2. Danelectro Billionaire Series Filthy Rich Tremolo - Simple and effective with a superb tone and a switchable hard / soft option. I love it! But I'm a tremolo nut. Have only played cheap ones before, so not sure how it compares though to say a Boss tremolo. Score 8/10.

3. Boss DD-3T Digital Delay. Finally - I got a grown-up delay pedal! This is a serious piece of kit. Goes from very (too) short 0.50ms to an epic, vast 800ms. You can get the whole Edge thing going really easily. It's a mesmerising joy to just noodle around with. I like it when you get that cascading, overlapping sea of delay. And it has a tap tempo - which is quite hard to master so far tbh. I find it easier to use the speed control to find the right sweet spot. Score: 9/10.

4. Foxgear Futura Ambient Reverb + Delay - Does what it promises: lovely ambient washes and big reverb. Have used it on loads of recordings. Paired with the Boss DD-3T and a chorus pedal it's full-on shoegaze. My Orange Tiny Terror has no built in reverb or fx, so it's an essential pedal on my board. Love how it lights up too. I mean the whole casing - a mellow purple glow. Score: 8/10.

5. Boss DS-1 Distortion. A classic, but I know it has a marmite love-hate effect with people. I like it for its instant filth. Put it on and I'm immediately in punk mode. It's a bit unruly - possibly too unruly. I have the gain way down, but it's hard for my 'clean' orientated mind to warm to it for frequent use. It does a job though. Score: 7/10.

6. Ibanez GSR180-BEM Bass - Very light, looks fantastic, and is a joy to play. It's a cheap bass and small / light, so you don't get the bottom end gravity of my Jazz bass. When you play it unplugged and in isolation it doesn't sound great - kind of lacking body / impact. But somehow it works great in the recording mix. I'm very happy with what it's doing for me. However, it arrived in an unplayable state. The truss rod was so off that none of the strings would fret. It's a surprising black mark against the normally excellent Thomann. It should never get shipped like that. If I was a beginner I would have been too scared to try and fix it. Score: 7/10 (once set up). On arrival: 1/10.



7. Lekato Looper Pedal - A very cheap (£30) looper pedal. Not sure if it's just me, but I can't get along with it. I just don't like the way it loops or looping in general. It's not even fun to play with. I'd rather just multi-track on the MBR if I want a jam. Score: 3/10.

[Flash Harry]

Tim,

this is a music collaboration site, not Porn Hub.

We used to allow the occasional boobies from OsKiLo, but that was owing to his personal circumstances. 

Can you stick to wholesome contributions please?

[Greeny]

Can you stick to wholesome contributions please?

You know you want to whip your Orange Terror Stamp out! 

[bruno]

I wasn't thinking about pedals until Greeny starting posting pictures of his new one. Damn. Totally blame it on Greeny, at least that is what I tell the missus :-)
Plus I like watching TPS, so mia culpa. I have bought maybe one or two.....



Right to left, only the new ones....

Outlaw Effects Wrangler Compressor see https://www.thomann.de/gb/outlaw_effects_wrangler_compressor.htm Its a cheap compressor, and I'm not very good with compressors. Am still figuring it out, but it does seem quite nice. 7/10.

JHS Series 3 Fuzz - I'm not a Fuzz person, it must be said - and I wasn't sure at first. I had a problem with the first one, so this is the replacement. It is growing on me. It could do with a tone knob, but does its thing very well. 8/10

EHX HotWax Two distortion pedals in one. The crayon is very, very good, great for stacking other distortions. You can get some great tones out of this 9/10

Outlaw Effects Dumbleweed Overdrive Its cheap, and I struggle to get a good sound out of it. It always sounds a bit muffled to me, and am always a bit disappointed by the sounds. Its going to be replaced by the Wampler Tumnus at between 1 to 2 today 4/10

Wampler Pinnacle Delux If you want gentile or subtle, this ain't the pedal for you. This is Eddie in a box. Dialing back the distortion is a bit shit sounding. Cranking it is 80's hair metal in spades. At this end, it is great. I do like this pedal, but not the one to buy if you wish to dial it back, it has specific uses and sounds at which it exceeds. 8/10

J Rocket APE - Brilliant pedal, great for an end boost and thickener. With a single clean digital delay, fully wet (Zoom is doing this job), it turns into a fantastic tape sounding delay. The best on the board imp. 10/10

All the rest are older pedals, including the Zoom. I have rediscovered the Ventura Vibe. It takes some tweaking, but capable of great things. I added the Freqout, as I had it, and its quite good fun, and Pete Thorn has it on his pedal board. It is very good, however I often forget about it!

B

[Ferryman_1957]

Nice work chaps! Tim, I am liking that Foxgear pedal a lot and Bruno, I am loving your Obscura and Polara (even if not new), I've come close to buying those myself several times.

Tim, I hear you on the looper. I have a Ditto X4 and had great plans for looping epics but I struggle to get on with it and just find it easier to multitrack stuff. It's coming off the board and may get sold.

Bruno, when's the Tumnus going on the board......?

[bruno]

Nice work chaps! Tim, I am liking that Foxgear pedal a lot and Bruno, I am loving your Obscura and Polara (even if not new), I've come close to buying those myself several times.

Tim, I hear you on the looper. I have a Ditto X4 and had great plans for looping epics but I struggle to get on with it and just find it easier to multitrack stuff. It's coming off the board and may get sold.

Bruno, when's the Tumnus going on the board......?

It arrived yesterday and now on the board replacing the dumbleweed - I must say I love what it does to cleans, it really fattens the sound wonderfully. Its definitely worth the money.
B

[Greeny]

Nice work chaps! Tim, I am liking that Foxgear pedal a lot and Bruno, I am loving your Obscura and Polara (even if not new), I've come close to buying those myself several times.

Tim, I hear you on the looper. I have a Ditto X4 and had great plans for looping epics but I struggle to get on with it and just find it easier to multitrack stuff. It's coming off the board and may get sold.

Bruno, when's the Tumnus going on the board......?

It arrived yesterday and now on the board replacing the dumbleweed - I must say I love what it does to cleans, it really fattens the sound wonderfully. Its definitely worth the money.
B

I love a (pedal) story with a happy ending! 

[Ferryman_1957]

I love a (pedal) story with a happy ending! 

You might like this then:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXZgOyFN54k

[Greeny]

:-)

The JHS show is my favourite YouTube channel. At first I thought the pedal musical was an elaborate joke - until I found myself watching the livestream on consecutive nights!

[Greeny]

A recent addition (that replaces my El Ray Lucha Fuzz). The Electroharmonix Russian Big Muff Pi. Not cheap, but not expensive either.

A solid 9/10. I absolutely love it on its own, and it sounds great with an octave pedal or a chorus pedal too. Very versatile.